Wedding album - final unveiling

Spent the day finishing off my wedding album as we're going to Horsham today to see relatives and I wanted to show them. Here are two of the layouts:

Butterfly: K&Co; balloon brads: Creative Imagination; ric rac & stickers: Doodlebug

Paper: BasicGrey Porcelain; flowers: K&CO; brads: Doodlebug; stickers: The Story of Us

Quote

Finally found time for the Saturday Surprise challenge, which this week is Quote.
I used paper and rub-ons by Basic Grey, scroll stamp by Stampington, vellum quote and brads by K&Co.

Heart

With Valentine's Day approaching, Daring Cardmakers latest challenge is to create a card that features a heart.
My card features two shrink plastic tiles stamped in goldm top left, attached with fibres; ghost shapes from Heidi Swapp; metal heart shape and glitter letters by Making Memories and envelope and brad by K&Co. Stamp on the left hand side is by Artifacts.

Advent, Christmas do do list and mixed memories

In catch-up mode today as I created three layouts to get me almost up-to-date with Journalling My Christmas.

Prompt 5 was about the countdown to Christmas and how we celebrate / mark Advent. It's been years since I had an Advent calendar but I attempted to replicate one. I imagined I would mark out the little squares, cut them precisely and then put little hand painted images behind the windows.

Well, that was the intention...but I'm not very precise, or patient, and so I got bored with marking out the squares exactly and I ran out of hand painted images. Instead I used some cut-outs from old Christmas cards. The numbers were a challenge too because I soon ran out of "1" from the Doodlebug stickers I was using. Oh well, improvise is my motto!

Supplies: paper - K&Co; gold swirl - K&Co; letters - Making Memories; number stickers - Doodlebug and Making Memories.

Prompt six was to share your memories of Christmas both good and bad, perhaps dividing the page to show this. Initially I didn't think I'd had any bad Christmases. I've been very fortunate. But then I remembered how my dad was sometimes like the Grinch. I wish he hadn't been. I wrote some hidden journalling where you can see an arrow.

Supplies: paper - K&Co and BasicGrey Wassail; ribbon - Anita's; paint - Adirondack gold dabber; letters - American Crafts Thickers.

Finally for today, create your "to do" list - today's prompt. I am fairly organised at Christmas. I start making cards in August and have now got around 30 (I bought the rest) and I've bought all my presents online. I've still got lots to do though: I like to wear something new on Christmas Day so I have to find an outfit, and I haven't started the wrapping and card writing yet.

Supplies: paper - BasicGrey Dasher & Infuse; chipboard - Making Memories; journalling spot - Collage Press; ghost clock - Heidi Swapp; PC font - Lucida handwriting.

White Christmas with a splash of pink

Daring Cardmakers latest challenge is to create a white Christmas card with a splash of pink. I used my Cuttlebug to emboss a background (snowflakes) and to cut out Christmas trees in pink which are highlighted with Stickles. Pink flock letters by K&Co.

Cards for milestones

I didn't really fancy of any of the card challenges this week so here are a couple of cards I prepared earlier.
I've taken a liking to using photographs in cards that celebrate milestones: it really personalises them I think. This card, below, is for a friend, Paula. The handmade paper is by Lakeland and the stamp used is by Hero Arts, the flowers painted with Twinkling H2Os and then cut out and mounted.
Recently our student intern left after her year's work experience, and this was the card, right, I created for her.


The background paper is from the Rockstar pad by DCWV; the flowers I decorated with glitter glue and the pink tag in the bottom corner is by K&Co.

Song Sung Blue

Arty Girlz latest challenge has the theme "Blue". I love blue, such a soft refreshing colour; yet very few of my cards are blue.

I used a vintage image, some background paper by Stampington, hearts by Doodlebug and quote by K&Co, and both stamps by Artifacts with ink by Stampin' Up.

Combs and crows

Two unusual subjects for a layout, I am sure you will agree. It crossed my mind recently, as I flipped through my scrapbook albums, that I don't do much journalling. This is strange considering writing used to be my living. I have a lot to say (hence two blogs!) but I'm often put off by my awful writing.

Still, I've decided to make more of an effort to include journalling. Here are two LOs which feature it.

Crow is about a tenacious bird who kept visiting the swimming pool when we were on holiday recently in Rhodes. Paper by Urban Lily, glass bird from Heidi Swapp, felt birds by Jenni Bowlin; pink flock letters by K&Co; clear epoxy sticker by EK Success; pink corner by KI Memories.

"I love your little comb" is a soppy LO celebrating J's lack of vanity. No aftershave, no moisturiser, no hair products. All he has is a tiny comb and he hardly ever uses that either. I used textured paint by Anita's on the chipboard letters (EK Success). Paper and letter stickers by BasicGrey; chipboard hearts by Making Memories.
There's quite a lot of chipboard in the LO - the scissors and the hearts - so it's a candidate for Rachael's chipboard challenge at the Scrummy Stash Cafe Blog.

Stripes, ads and brides

An unlikely trio, each the subject of a card-maker's challenge. 4 x 4 Friday's theme was vintage brides. I was thrilled about this as I never get the chance to do a wedding card, and I really love vintage at the moment.

I covered the card with K&Co paper, then a small strip of paper I had painted with Twinkling H2Os on top of some peel-offs. I removed the peel-offs and was pleased with the resist effect. I then stamped some Peakin' Posies (Hero Arts) in gold and embossed them, and painted them with Twinkling H2Os. I cut them out and raised them with foam. The vintage image is by Stampington and I added a remnant of lace.

Wednesday Stamper is looking for stripes. I stamped silver swirls onto pearlescent blue card and then matted some langusge paper (K&Co), Sweet Pea paper by Fancy Pants and created a dress using stripy paper and a peel-off. The frame is by Bam Pop and the glittery letters by Dovecraft.
Finally Arty Girlz challenge theme is Ad-Dicted. "I want you to browse the tv and magazines for advertisments and use them as inspiration. It might be the format, the colours, the products, the slogan - whatever floats your boat".

I found some old adverts for Wills's cigarettes in yesterday's paper. I laminated them to protect them and covered a card blank with BasicGrey paper. I painted some paper with green and blue Twinkling H2Os and again used the resist technique with a "classic cars" peel off. The brads are by K&Co.

Trees, Triangles and Quotes

The longer evenings are a boon for the crafter, particularly when there are so many delicious challenges to complete!

I combined two challenges to take part for the first time in Wednesday Stamper and Arty Girlz. Wednesday Stamper has a theme of trees, and Arty Girlz a theme of triangles.

I created a triangle shaped card and attached torn paper randomly, then stamped the four trees using my new Stampin' Up A Tree For All Seasons stamp, coloured with pens and edged with ink. I also stamped into triangle shaped pieces of shrink plastic - can you see them? I brushed the whole thing with PVA diluted with water and Irridescent Medium, then added some dried flowers and leaves from Hobbycraft.
Meanwhile the Scrummy Stash Cafe Blog is looking for quotes or sayings. I found an ideal phrase in K&Co's vellum quotes, "The earth laughs in flowers" by Ralph Waldo Emerson. I cut boldly into a new sheet of College Press Grayson Hall collection paper and added some grand adhesions from K&Co, finishing off with burgundy organza ribbon.

Thoughts turn to spring

Spring seems to have arrived very early this year....already the temperature is warming up and the bulbs are bursting forth.

I was inspired to use lighter, brighter colours over the weekend and I was keen to use flowers. I created two Mother's Day cards but, canny crafter that I am, I keep them in reserve until one of the challenge blogs asks for Mother's Day cards!

Meanwhile here is a spring-inspired layout which is part of the Story of My Life. It's on the subject of my hair.

I've had the sparkly balloon stickers from K&Co for ages, and didn't know what to do with them. But they made a great backdrop here for small circular shots of my head!

I used K&Co sparkly paper and scalloped cardstock and a Gelly Roll pen for the doodling. I drew the bluebells by hand and painted them with Twinkling H2Os. For the journalling, I wrote on an acetate (transparency) and then painted the back of it with acrylic paint.

Viva Las Vegas!

A great weekend with lots of scrapping and card making.
First, a recap on my visit to Las Vegas this week. Arrived last Saturday around 2pm. Checked in at the Venetian, amazed at the sheer size and scale of the place, and immediately got a cab to Majestic Memories, a scrapbooking store. I spent a happy hour wandering round and selecting papers and embellishments, although I was disappointed not to get a couple of things on my list (Cuttlebug to name but one). The store had a LOT of Jolee's type stickers for every possible scrapbooking theme, which is not really my thing. There were plenty of papers from many of the manufacturers, and most of the Love, Elsie range.

I bought some papers, cardstock, a large punch, some Autumn Leaves transparent borders, various chipboard alphabets, some fab EK Success chipboard glitter shapes, a Stickles in magenta and the latest issue of Creating Keepsakes.

Back at the hotel, and attending our sales & marketing conference, I had no other time for shopping as we started at 7am and went through to 8.30pm, although I was desperate to try to get to a Barnes & Noble to buy Somerset Memories. Thwarted in that ambition, sadly.

I did get out on Sunday morning for an hour to take some pictures. Las Vegas really has to be seen to be believed. It's surreal, particularly at night, when the place exudes neon glamour. In the layout there's a picture of the Venetian, St Mark's Square (which looks amazingly like the real thing, although it's all indoors, including the sky and the Grand Canal!) and Caesar's Palace. I bought the Las Vegas lettering from a US online store a while ago. The frame is by Bam Pop. Paper by Doodlebug.

The other layout, Here Come the Girls, records a fun party a couple of weeks ago. CK said that grey is the new black, so, fair enough I thought, and used grey cardstock plus K&Co paper and chipboard swirl and giant brads from Dovecraft. The letters are the indispensable Heidi rub-on by Making Memories.

Story of my life latest

Here are two more layouts from the story of my life. Five down, about 50 to go! As a recap, I'm using all the pictures in B&W and using different colour themes for different stages of my life. Well, that was the theory - I was supposed to use blue for my childhood years - but as you'll see, somehow yellow crept in!

The picture top left was the result of a session in Plymouth with photographer Gerald Prior. It took a long time because my younger brother was such a livewire. We practically had to hold him down in the end. I still remember that dress! I must have been about seven or eight years old. Supplies: paper - unknown. Red ribbon, jewel brads by Dovecraft. Green sparkly letters K&Co.

The picture top right is my official school photo when I was about six years old I reckon. The tragic headline "Can I help you sonny?" was actually said when I was a bit older and we'd gone to a restaurant for lunch (extremely unusual). The waitress asked me what I wanted, sonny. Well, I did have very short hair: I had had it longish but it used to tangle and my dad Stamps was the only one with any patience to brush it gently. So I used to get a razor cut at My Lady Hair Fashions, Colebrook, where my snipper was called (by me) Valerie the Penguin. Well after the disgrace of being mistaken for a boy, I promptly grew it long again.

Supplies: patterned paper and flower, DCWV: envelope (containing lock of my hair from when I was about 12!), K&Co. Journalling note: 7Gypsies. Chipboard letters: K&Co.

Oh to be David Bailey

I had some good time for scrapbooking this weekend. On Saturday I created "the gas lamps of Boston" and "the first rose," the first bloom in our new front garden. I'm not very happy with either. I had a very clear idea of what I wanted to do with the lamps of Boston. The problem was, the photos didn't deliver. When I saw the gorgeous Maine layout in Scrapbook Inspirations of a lamp reflecting the nearby houses, I was as sick as the proverbial parrot.

I tried very hard to take some decent photos of the lamps, and we do have a very good camera (Canon Eos 400D), but unfortunately with no tripod, and a very slow exposure at night, the photos were pants. I did manage to buy some good photographs sold as letter postcards, but they weren't the close-ups I was looking for.

The rose picture is fine, but as usual I found I'd run out of certain letters when I rummaged through my chipboard alphabets. I really wanted the K&Co Twinkling pink letters but I haven't got any (new shopping list coming up!). So I used some other letters, mixed colours, and I'm not pleased with the result.

Oh well. Moving to Sunday, and at a loss for 12 x 12 inspiration, I suddenly decided to start my mini book. I was bowled over by some examples in Somerset Memories recently, and thought this would be a great opportunity to combine stamping, painting and using gorgeous stash and photos.

I used a very simple and cheap spiral bound A5 book I bought in the local pound shop recently. I'm up to "D" so far and have enjoyed using watercolours and using a lot of the papers free with magazines. I think it'll take a while to complete, but I'm really enjoying it.